GREENVILLE – Justin Hardy was “just” a walk-on when he arrived on East Carolina’s campus in 2010 – now, in 2013, he is “just” the all-time leader in touchdown receptions in ECU history.

With 5:44 remaining in the third quarter, Hardy ran a crossing pattern over the back middle of the end zone and quarterback Shane Carden put it right on his number for a touchdown.

The score was Hardy’s 23rd of his ECU career, of which is a little more than midway through his junior season. It broke Lance Lewis’s old mark of 22.

“It makes me feel great, a lot of hard work is paying off. I take my time and do the right things in practice and let them carry over to the field on gamedays and everything else takes care of itself,” Hardy said.

Hardy’s 10 catches for 99 yards in Saturday’s 58-24 win over Tulsa gave him exactly 1,000 receiving yards for the season.

He became the first Pirates’ receiver to post back-to-back 1,000-yard-plus seasons in school history.

“I didn’t know it had never been done before, but I just have been trying to make my technique and route running so much better and let it show in the games,” Hardy said.

He has caught 84 balls and has more milestones lying ahead of him.

His 234 career receptions are 34 behind Dwayne Harris’s school record of 268.

Hardy’s 2,763 career receiving yards are 338 behind Harris’s 3,001.

Quarterback Shane Carden has thrown most of those 23 touchdowns to Hardy and will forever be linked with him and the record.

“It’s awesome to be linked with him. We came in together, were on the scout team as freshmen together and I knew then that this guy was going to be really good,” Carden said.

“Justin’s a great friend of mine and we have been through a lot in our ECU days. Having another year together to play with each other, we are just going to keep working and getting better.”

ECU improves to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in Conference USA, with a home game against UAB next Saturday.